National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA Press Release Archive

« back to archive | Back to NCAA.org

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Contact(s)

Rick Nixon
Associate Director for the Division I
 Women’s Basketball Championship
317/917-6539

SAN ANTONIO---For many community-based organizations across America, the first step to increasing youth participation in sports involves uniforms. For the second consecutive year, Wilson has partnered with the NCAA Women’s Final Four to donate girls’ and boys’ basketball uniforms to get kids on the court.

On Wednesday, March 31, the Boys & Girls Club of San Antonio were announced as the proud recipient of 120 Wilson basketball uniforms to be provided to youth teams at the Club. Wilson general manager Mike Kuehne was on hand to personally deliver the uniforms to Jim Watson, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of San Antonio.

For the NCAA, it was important to distribute the uniforms in San Antonio -- host city for this year’s Women’s Final Four, to impact youth sports in the city long after a national champion is crowned.

Wilson Sporting Goods Co. has a long and proud history of supporting NCAA programs and initiatives, including providing the official basketball of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championships.

“Wilson and the NCAA share a common goal,” said Wilson President Chris Considine. “Our strong partnership and our commitment to encouraging youth sports initiatives makes it easy to donate uniforms that help get kids out on the court.”

“The NCAA is committed to giving young people the opportunity to participate in a variety of sports and Wilson is a valuable partner in that effort,” said Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president of Division I Women’s Basketball. “It’s exciting for us to see this initiative continue.”

About the NCAA and Division I Women’s Basketball

The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions – AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola – and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners – Enterprise, The Hartford, Hershey’s, LG, Lowe’s, Planters, State Farm and UPS.

NCAA women’s basketball is characterized by strong fundamentals, high quality of play, sportsmanship, role model student-athletes and family oriented entertainment. The latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate figures show 83 percent of NCAA Division I women’s basketball players graduate. In terms of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate, which measures term-by-term academic success, the overall score is 962, well above the NCAA benchmark of 925.

For the latest news in regard to the Women’s Final Four, visit www.ncaa.com/finalfour.

About Wilson Sporting Goods Co.

Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Co., a division of Amer Sports, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of sports equipment. The company designs, manufactures and distributes advanced equipment that helps players improve their performance. Wilson’s core categories include Baseball, Football, Basketball, Softball, Bats, Volleyball, Soccer, Youth Sports, Uniforms/Apparel, Golf, Footwear, and Racquet Sports (Tennis, Racquetball, Squash, Badminton and Platform Tennis).

-30-